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Gauss' Hypergeometric Equation, William R. Smith

Master's Theses

As early as the seventeenth century the English mathematician, john Wallis (1616-1703), used the term "hypergeometric" to describe a series which he was studying. This series, ∑(a)(a+b)(a+2b)…(a+n-1b), is quite different from the usual geometric series, hence the term, "hyper" (=above) plus "geometric," was used to signify that the series was of greater complexity than the geometric series. Wallis did not consider his series a power series or a function of x.

In 1769 this series received a remarkable development at the hands of Loonhard Euler who, following the example of Wallis, applied the word "hypergeometric" to it. He observed that …